Wednesday, 10 May 2017

A Glimpse of Japan

Hey there. One of our favourite places to go is Japan and we've already been twice in the last six months. It's not too far from Hong Kong and we are in love with all things Japanese, not least of all the food. It is Miss C's favourite destination and she loves all the cute "kawaii" products and characters.

We took a mother and daughter trip just before Christmas last year to Okinawa for a few days and we had another trip to Tokyo in early February with our company. Both trips were so much fun and I always look forward to another trip there. These aren't all the photos taken on our trips, of course; just a few. I hope to scrap more of them soon.

Pika Pika Pikachu

With the huge Pokemon-go mania happening last year, Miss C fell in love with all things Pokemon, so of course we had to visit a Pokemon centre when we were in Okinawa to check out the merchandise. This big yellow Pikachu was so cute and begging for a cuddle. I chose this paper line for the photo as it looks fun and colourful to match.

Adding an arrow and some tags draw your eye towards to photo and title.

An accent corner to balance out the page.

Pretty Park

Behind the hotel we were staying at in Okinawa, was a Chinese style garden with pagodas and waterfalls. We spent an hour taking photos, feeding the fish and Miss C got splashed by some hungry carp looking for their lunch. I chose this paper line as it has an almost oriental design.

Since the photos are of a garden, I added pots of flowers on the side.

Always love camera accents.

I cut alternating coloured strips as the backing for the photos and added some accents around.

Amazing Happiness

These next three layouts are from our Tokyo trip in February. This one, we tracked down some early blooming sakura trees in Yoyogi Park. So beautiful and I love how the papers complement the photo with all the beautiful pink flowers.

I love the dimensional flowers that look a little like the cherry blossoms. I inked the accents a little and also added gold rubon stars and hearts around the page.

I recently got this blossom stamp and absolutely love it. I stamped the flowers around the photo and on the sides in tattered rose distress ink.

Let's Sushi

Can't go to Japan without getting sushi and we found a great place that did amazing, fresh, delicious sushi at a reasonable price. Miss C couldn't miss out on her ikura (salmon roe) rice bowl - her absolute favourite, as you can see from her expression - polished it off in record time. I was looking for the right kit to use with these photos and really love the rich red as a background.

I like the contrast of the glittery gold and criss cross pattern of the chipboard letters. I also love the row of cameras across the page.

A small accent cluster to balance off the photo.

Products

Papers and accents from American Crafts Shimelle Go Now Go collection

Prickly Cuddles

Japan is full of animal cafes and when we heard about a hedgehog cafe, we had to have a look. These cuties are so adorable but they really are quite prickly. We used gloves to handle them but some others were using bare hands. We did try, but ouch. We got to feed them meal worms, which they love. Very cute animals. Don't you love the navy blue background paper with the peach cross paper?

I really like the patchwork hearts and Love that tie in the colours of the papers.

The little bird is too cute and adds a little whimsy to the photos.

I still have more Japan photos to scrap and hope to get round to them when I can find the right papers to scrap with them.